Heavy gases

A regular reading of today's Opinion column in The Daily Telegraph provides an interesting insight into the lengths of suppression of one's common sense some opponents of global warming theory are willing to go. The article is here, but DT requires registration, so I can give you the gist of it: assuming one liter of carbon dioxide weights about 1.9 kg, it proves that three persons traveling a distance of 10 miles produce actually less CO₂ than if they walked the same distance.

The point is, of course, that it is one cubic meter (or 1,000 liters) that weights 1.9 kg; the striking thing is that neither the author nor his sources paused to think that at the density they assume it to have it would be twice as heavy as water. The interesting question here is whether it is due to generic scientific ignorance pervading journalistic classes or just the zealotry of disclosing the unspeakable evils of Carbon Trust.

It is moments like this that make me wonder. Why the people whose values and beliefs I generally respect and accept repeatedly turn out to be such biased dolts? Why it is that people whose v&b I generally despise and ignore are usually so much brighter?